Montana Department of Revenue Warns of Email Scam

The Montana Department of Revenue is warning people about a new email scam that could potentially harm computer systems, and steal identities and financial information.

Chief Security Officer Cleo Anderson said officials discovered the scam today when they received a lot of calls on Thursday from citizens, both in and out of state, who are receiving scammed emails from various subjects that are not from the Department of Revenue.

"In some instances, they're asking for money to be sent in," Anderson said. "The emails are poorly written, the language and so forth appears to be not correct language that would be used. The email addresses are not official, governmental email addresses. The Department of Revenue will never initiate contact by email to our citizens."

Anderson said in some instances, the emails are asking for money. She said if an email like this happens to arrive in your inbox, don’t open it.

"We're advising them to not open them if they possibly can identify that they are not legitimate emails, obviously," Anderson said. "If they open them, we recommend that they delete them immediately for fear of any potential risk to themselves, either their identity, or their financial information, and even their computers could be harmed from a virus or something of that nature."

For more information or if there is questions about emails you may have received, call the department’s call center toll free at (866) 859-2254.